A rare fish caught in the Whangarei Harbour has fish experts buzzing, with the specimen destined for national museum Te Papa.
Whangarei fisher Richard Osborne caught the 20cm-long northern species Gonorynchus fish while netting for piper on Wednesday night.
Mr Osborne said he knew straight away the fish was unusual and decided to show it to the Ministry of Fisheries in Whangarei to find out what it was.
"I've been a fisherman all my life but I'd never seen anything like it," Mr Osborne said.
The catch has excited experts at New Zealand's national museum Te Papa, who immediately asked MFish in Whangarei to freeze it and forward it for study.
Te Papa fisheries collection manager Andres Stewart said he could not wait to get his hands on the specimen.
The fish species was also known as the beach salmon, sand fish or sand eel, he said.
The southern species of the fish was fairly common but this was the only known complete adult northern species specimen found in the country.
"We have only ever had a few juveniles and one partly decayed adult of this type so I'm very keen to get this one," Mr Stewart said.
There was very little experts knew about the northern species.
The southern species grows up to a metre long, lives on soft seabeds and is known to burrow into the sand by day and emerge at night to feed.
"It is a very curious fish. There are certain characteristics that show they are in some way descended from eels. Its larvae are very similar to eel larvae," Mr Stewart said.
The fish would be studied and X-rayed at Te Papa, then pickled for the national collection at the museum.
- NORTHERN ADVOCATE (WHANGAREI)
Rare fish found in Whangarei Harbour
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